If you’re a volunteer youth worker who needs to take a break, this article might help you. If you’re a youth pastor with maxed-out volunteers, this article might give you perspective. I am a longtime volunteer youth worker and full-time staffer at my church in a non-youth ministry role. …
What if my little youth ministry ship was permanently stuck in a swirling vortex? Here are three “diagnostic” questions that I vowed to use as filters. Even though I had a decade of ministry under my belt, I was exhausted after months of trying to build a new youth ministry from the ground up.…
I have a bad feeling about this. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a great disturbance in the force for supporters and critics alike. The film ends a 42-year-old story arc spanning nine primary movies, two side films, multiple TV shows, and endless supporting books.…
Like many of you, we’ve been walking with this year’s senior class through the heartbreaking loss of their final high school semester. The conversations are raw, varied, and emotional. These teenagers are grieving, and their struggle is similar to those who are grieving the loss of a loved one.…
Chances are, your online ministry strategy is now the lifeblood of your ministry. But a time is coming (sooner than you think) when we’ll be allowed to gather in person for face-to-face ministry. What will you do? Instead of waiting until we have permission to reopen, our youth ministry team is actively planning for it.…
Before I launch into my confession-vomit, a few qualifiers… I love my church… I’d attend even if I didn’t work there (I know not every church staff member can say that with a straight face). I love and respect my pastor and my boss—my bullet-point confessions are not a veiled critique.…
Jesus is an artist, and he’s used the ugly raw material of the COVID-19 pandemic and re-fashioned it in ways we couldn’t conceive… We’ve all been dragged into a forced re-set—we’ve had to rely on Jesus, not our own ministry swagger or momentum, to feel our way forward.…
So, yes, I watched about half of the just-completed season of The Bachelor. My embarrassment compels me to quickly explain—my 17-year-old daughter started watching this notorious (and wildly popular) show only this year, a permission that came with a price. Namely, that my wife and I would need to watch the show with her. …
His name was Andy, and some weeks he was the only teenager who showed up for my youth group. It was a small church. And when things were good, the youth group might have 15 kids show up. But things suddenly became not-so-good as our senior pastor and congregation battled over whether or not he should resign. …
Remember when you had the perfect ministry role? It was the night before you started serving in it. After that, and every day forward, you likely thought: “This isn’t exactly what I expected.” Maybe it was close enough that you stuck it out.…
